Bob Holman Brings ‘Performance Poetry’ to Community College

Bob Holman brought poetry and laughter to a standing room only audience at Bucks County Community College Friday afternoon.

He set the tone immediately, directing people to sit only on the left side of the room as they filed in. One student walked in and sat on the right side, prompting Holman to look up and jokingly say, “Oh, you’re breaking my heart! You rebel, you poet!” Adjusting his thick-rimmed glasses, he excitedly sang to the students standing in the hallway, his voice resonating through the room and intriguing the students to sit down.

Holman made known his interest in endangered languages -  “We are losing a language every two weeks!” He showed a short film of himself in Africa with a group of people called Griots who sing and play the chora, a multi-string instrument. Holman told the audience, “These people kept the original spoken word.”

He added “words are important, when a language dies, a culture dies.”

A member of the audience asked him why he had such an interest in endangered languages. Holman said “How did I get into endangered language? Hip-hop, that’s how” then began to move about the room, poetically raps to everyone.

The questions continued.

What aspects of language influence perception?

 “Can you think of a thing you don’t have a word for?” The room went silent for a moment, broken by another question.

How does poetry slam work?

 “It doesn’t,” Holman replied with a grin.

Holman looked across his audience and answered a final question: Could you say something about dreams?

“In dreams begin responsibilities,” he said, quoting Delmore Schwartz. He advised the audience to keep a journal beside their beds to record their dreams and said it was like, “yourself talking to yourself.” With that, the audience clapped and for the most part dispersed.